Rachel Blackwood
Background In Atlas, those at the top of society are often badly detached from the world around them; not understanding the problems and lives of those below them. The Blackwood family is no exception;having risen to wealth by trading in art, antiques, and land; anything which can be bought for a pittance from someone who can’t make ends meet and sold for a fortune to the already rich. Rachel’s father always told her that they deserved their fortune, that those foolish enough to be swindled were at fault for falling for it, and she believed it for most of her life; developing a philosophy of unequal opposites. She was rich, and therefore she was better than the poor. She was human, and better than the faunus. She was a civilian, and could not stand for the huntsman to be better than her; so she begged her father to hire tutors so she could learn to fight. The tutor hired was an elderly Atlesian man, a huntsman from a previous era; not long after the war. He had been wealthy all his life, and was a master of his craft; an archer of great skill even in old age who helped her to gain proficiency in the art, as well as helping her to design her weapon. Ebon Filigree was assembled by hand, parts precision machined and engravings carefully inlaid with silver; the weapon embodied her belief in opposites, a bow, one of the world’s most primitive weapons, built using the most advanced technology available to her. Over time, Rachel’s beliefs continued to strengthen, her parents doing what they could to encourage her sense of superiority prior to her decision to travel to Vale and enroll at Beacon, in her mind the best of the four academies. It was at Beacon that she met Nanuq Gage, despite being her social opposite the two agreed on their own superiority to faunus and formed a friendship based in that shared dislike which carried them together in initiation to become one half of team NCRT; although Rachel was beyond displeased that she was not made leader, as the best trained and educated member of the team. Rachel’s friendship with Nanuq lasted for the majority of their first year, eventually crumbling as his proclaimed hatred of faunus was revealed to be a ruse, a mask to hide his intense attraction to humanities cousins. Rachel was faced with a crisis and a choice, she could continue her path and maintain a belief in her own superiority but lose the only real friend she had ever had, or she could let go of the driving philosophy behind every choice she had ever made. Rachel Blackwood chose the latter path, re-assessing her view on the concept of opposites she began to see a balance. Humans were no better than faunus, merely different; Huntsman were not superior, they protected while the civilians worked to maintain society. It took time, and a lot of effort, but Rachel managed to earn the respect of her team as she moved beyond her history of elitism and bigotry and aiming to become a huntress so she could protect the world, rather than as a status symbol. With their team dynamic stabilized and a developing trust in the once divided team, NCRT entered the Vytal Festival Tournament their second year at Beacon, making it to the final round before being disqualified; Rachel was disappointed but did not hold a grudge against Kekoa for being eliminated. During her third year at Beacon, Rachel spent much time redesigning her weapon; her new appreciation for balance between opposites (plus help from her new found friends) leading to significant improvements to her original recurve bow. Rachel abandoned the cylinder used on Ebon Filigree in favor of phial slots nested in the arms, using pulleys to increase the power, and designing arrows to replace the hard light projections used by the previous model. The new, more powerful weapon was dubbed Ivory Cloisonné and has served her well in the two years since. Nanuq, Rachel, Lan, and Kekoa tdid not participate in the Vytal Festival their final year; meaning team NCRT was in Vale when the Battle of Beacon began, there they allied with Rost Smith and Lila Ashworth -veteran huntsman belonging to the former team RSLG- in protecting civilians during the evacuation efforts. With Beacon gone, the team has remained in Vale, helping to repair the damage and fight back against the endless swarm of grimm. Personality One thing about Rachel Blackwood that has never changed is her fascination with the concept of opposites; day to night, white to black, good to evil, or up to down, and this fascination has had a strong effect on her outlook on life. When she was younger, she believed that being at the top of society and being wealthy made her better than her opposites; those who occupied the bottom rungs of society. Opposite was not equal in her mind, and one extreme was always superior. Humans were better than faunus, the rich were better than the poor, and she was better than anyone that couldn’t buy their way to the top. This self righteous attitude has softened over time, first when she befriended someone who was her opposite in society; born in a tribe outside the kingdom of Atlas rather than in the upper echelons of the kingdom; and again when she nearly lost that friendship because of her skewed view of the world. While still not the most pleasant person in the world, Rachel Blackwood has become much more reasonable, despite maintaining most of her snobbish attitude by the logic that selfish and selfless are two more essential opposites in the world. She can be generous to her friends, and while she is not particularly fond of Faunus tolerates them and no longer actively discriminates like she once did. Rachel’s goal of becoming a huntress, once desired as a status symbol, has been reaffirmed as part of the balance between opposites that she new holds close to her heart. Appearance TBD Equipment Name: Ebon Filigree Wielder: Rachel Blackwood Maker/Smith: Rachel Blackwood Classification: Dust Cylinder Recurve Bow Weapon Derivation: recurve bow, Myrtenaster Design: An ebony black recurve bow; connected to the grip is a revolver cylinder filled with dust and decorated by intricate engravings and silver leaf. A blue hardlight string is connected to the cylinder while the bow is active, and rotation is controlled by a thumb switch. Holstered/Inactive Form: arms retract, leaving the cylinder and grip visible. Form 1: A recurve bow that utilizes dust and a hardlight projector to create arrows for explosive ranged attacks Features: can use either hardlight shells filled with dust for ranged attacks, or uncontained dust for point-blank attacks and semblance enhancement Dust Capacity: ice, fire, earth, gravity, lightning, lava Usage: ranged combat and semblance enhancement using dust Planned/Possible Upgrades: later upgraded into/replaced by Ivory Cloisonné (WIP weapon) Notes: Ebon or Ebony is a classification of hard wood; filigree is a form of decorative metal working Name: Ivory Cloisonné Wielder: Rachel Blackwood Maker/Smith: Rachel Blackwood Classification: Heavy Augmented Compound Bow Weapon Derivation: compound bow, Myrtenaster Design: An ebon black compound bow with two pulleys on each end and 3 dust phial ports on each arm. The weapon is decorated with gold wire welded to the frame in a laurel pattern and filled in with ivory white nanoceramic enamel Holstered/Inactive Form: the arms fold back and in to reduce the weapon profile Form 1: An ornate high power compound bow Features: dust phials built into the weapon allow point-blank dust blasts in melee combat, or empowerment of her semblance. Powers and Abilities -Name: Mirror Step -User(s): Rachel Blackwood -Type: Physical/glyph -Purpose: Defensive -Short description: Teleports to safety by mirroring her position relative to an attacker -Activation Cue: sound of a mirror breaking -Range: Medium -General limitations: Cannot mirror if a solid object any more than 1/10 her mass is within the space she will occupy; smaller objects, particles, or extremely light materials will be displaced with varying levels of force -Passive ability(s) (if any): enhanced spatial awareness -Active ability: Tier One: Able to teleport by mirroring her position relative to an attacker, for example if she were struck on the back she would take the damage and immediately teleport so she was standing behind her attacker and facing away from them -Active ability: Tier Two: Mirror step at will relative to a target -Dust interaction (unknown): I’m open to suggestions, trying to avoid the obvious explosion on teleport stuff. -Notes: Rachel is heavily fixated on and fascinated by the concept of opposites, even in things as simple as the reflection in a mirror. Trivia